Other illustrated ff. from the same MS in Chester Beatty Library Dublin, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Los Angeles County Museum, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan Collection, Geneva.

Provenance

1. Sam Fogg Rare Books Ltd., cat. 22(2000):24

Commentary

To position the dynasty in a broad Islamic historical scheme, Shahrukh and his princes were not portrayed as invaders and usurpers, but as the rightful successors to previous "legitimate" rulers in Iran. These intentions were most effectively implemented under the Timurids by the Majma' al-tawarikh, written at the order of Shahrukh by the historian Hafiz-i Abru (d. 1430), who participated in a number of his campaigns and who entered the service of Shahrukh after the conqueror's death. The text is surviving in perhaps 4 large-scale, heavily illustrated copies. It is a general history of the world from Adam to Shahrukh's reign in 1427 and recounts Biblical, Iranian and Chinese history as well as that of the prophet Muhammad.